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CASWELL COUNTY – While many leftover Christmas trees have been made into mulch, leftovers from one North Carolina tree farm were literally thrown to the lions at the Conservators’ Center.

The center is an animal sanctuary in Caswell County where the trees have been a treat that both the volunteers and animals look forward to for several years.

Volunteers were busy Saturday morning getting 100 Christmas trees ready.

“We just make sure there's no string left on them, no plastic or tags and get them ready and put them in the cages,” Greg Cima, owner of Cranberry Tree Farm, said.

The cages are home to 31 lions and tigers at the Conservators' Center in Caswell County.

Cranberry Tree Farm in Laurel Springs donated a truckload of the trees that they didn't sell during the holidays.

“We brought them here the last four or five years, and we bring whatever we have left over from our retail lots in the triangle,” Cima said. “We ended up bringing about 100 trees today, that's what we had leftover to bring.”

Several trees are placed in the cages, and then the cats do the rest. Organizers said it's like cat nip for big cats.

“Every cat treats them differently. The white pine, specifically, they like the white pine better and if you'll sit here for a couple of hours they'll lay on it, they'll roll around on it, they'll have tug of war with it, drag it around the cage they'll sleep with it,” Steve Simmons, the organizer of the event, said. “Every cat is a little bit different.”

The Christmas trees will stay in the cages for at least a few months, but organizers said some of those trees won't even last a week.

“The trees will stay nice and green for months, and in some of the cats they'll stay in there for months, in other places they'll tear it apart and make it a mess and then the keepers will remove it in a week or so, but it depends,” Simmons said, “That's why we have a lot of trees, so we can keep putting fresh trees in.”

This is Shannon McKnight’s first time seeing big cats like these up close, and she said it's an experience she won't forget.

“It's really exciting. They're really huge and it's just really awesome,” she said. “I just can't even explain the feeling.”

The Conservators' Center is a rescue and conservation facility focused on the educational programs and the rescue and placement of animals in need. The center does educational tours, but only by appointment.